Rhodes hires college’s first dean of diversity and inclusion

Rhodes College announced Friday it has hired an associate dean of diversity and inclusion, a new position in academic affairs.

Noelle Chaddock will also be a faculty member in the Africana studies program and will teach the course The Making of Race in the Americas, according to the college's website.

'In her new position, Chaddock will work closely with the president's office, dean of faculty, student affairs, and other areas on institutional strategies to ensure the college is a diverse and welcoming community,' the college said in a statement on its website.

Chaddock previously served as chief diversity officer at the State University of New York at Cortland.

The hiring comes in the wake of mounting racial tensions on the small Memphis campus. Last month, two students apologized during a town hall meeting for hanging a sock monkey out of a window with a rope, an image many on campus saw as a reference to lynching, though the college said the incident was a prank. The same weekend words written in chalk across campus in support of presidential candidate Donald Trump and his platform to build a wall across the United States' border with Mexico.

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